Concerned Citizen: The American electoral system clearly possesses dee

Question

Concerned Citizen: The American electoral system clearly possesses deep flaws and must be discarded in favor of a more fair and just system. In several recent elections, candidates who were leading in pre-election polls failed to win election to office.

The suggestion that the American electoral system must be discarded most strongly depends on which of the following assumptions?

A. The candidate leading in pre-election polls won a majority of the popular vote in the actual election yet still failed to be elected.

B. The voting population did not significantly alter its feelings on which candidate was preferred during the time interval between the pre-election polls and the actual election.

C. The candidate winning the election consistently spent more money than the candidate who was leading in pre-election polls but failed to actually win.

D. The candidate who actually won office typically relied on a strongly negative campaign strategy and attacked his or her opponent's personal credibility in the final days before the election.

E. The elections in question were for major national or state offices and received considerable media coverage.

KarishmaB · Accepted Answer

Premise:
Candidates who were leading in pre-election polls failed to win election to office.

Conclusion: American electoral system clearly possesses deep flaws and must be discarded

Because the pre-poll leader failed to win, we are concluding that the electoral system has deep flaws.

A. The candidate leading in pre-election polls won a majority of the popular vote in the actual election yet still failed to be elected.

We are not assuming that the candidate won a majority of the popular vote. We don't know what the flaws are. The flaw could be that the candidate leading in pre-election poll did not win majority in actual election. All we know is that the one leading in pre-election polls failed to be elected.

B. The voting population did not significantly alter its feelings on which candidate was preferred during the time interval between the pre-election polls and the actual election.

This is correct. We need this to be true (it is necessary) for the conclusion to hold. We need the voting population to not significantly alter its feelings. Only then will the pre election leader win and we won't conclude that the system has deep flaws.

Negate it: The voting population did significantly alter its feelings.
If they did, then the pre-election poll leader would not win. Then the entire argument falls apart.

C. The candidate winning the election consistently spent more money than the candidate who was leading in pre-election polls but failed to actually win. 
Irrelevant. We don't know what impact spending more money has.

D. The candidate who actually won office typically relied on a strongly negative campaign strategy and attacked his or her opponent's personal credibility in the final days before the election. 
Again irrelevant. We don't know what impact this campaign strategy has.

E. The elections in question were for major national or state offices and received considerable media coverage.
Irrelevant

Answer (B)

goforgmat · Answer

Clearly B.Other options are Out of context or unrelated to the argument in question.

Shiv2016 · Answer

An assumption is NOT-STATED (hidden premise) in an argument. That is the reason we rule out option A.

Option B is the answer because according to the argument ONLY the electoral system is at fault and there is no other reason for this flaw.

If we negate the option, we get: 
The voting population significantly alter its feelings on which candidate was preferred during the time interval between the pre-election polls and the actual election.

This clearly shatters the conclusion that only the electoral system is at fault. This option eliminates any other possible reason i.e. feelings of the voting population.

sunny91 · Answer

Both A and B look good to me as an assumption. How did u put B over A, and does A look more like a strengthener than an assumption?

RanjanSury · Answer

Was contemplating between A and B. After a long thought, I picked B. I’m keen to know why B is better than A though. I hope we can have an opinion from any of the experts.

Chef · Answer

As someone mentioned above in the chain, Option A is probably incorrect because it restates the premise (second sentence in the stimulus). Assumption cannot be stated in the passage. If there is any other reason for rejecting A as the answer choice, please let me know.

DmitryFarber · Answer

You're correct that a stated premise can't be an assumption, so you won't see a premise as the correct answer on an assumption question. But for that reason, premises also won't show up as answer choices. That's just not what the GMAT does to create wrong answer choices. So what does that mean? Any time you think an answer is restating a premise, it almost certainly isn't! In the case of A, this choice adds new information--that the losing candidates we're talking about not only led in the polls, but also won the popular vote. (Sounds like an election I've seen recently. Where could that have been?

) That new information prevents this from being a restatement of the existing premise, but it also comes out of nowhere. Why would the argument rely on our knowing that these people won the popular vote? It seems we could argue about the fairness of the elections even without this, and bringing it in requires additional assumptions about the kind of results that can be considered fair. In short, A is too far out to be considered a necessary assumption. However, B brings up a very important consideration. What if people simply changed their minds? In that case, the election might be a fair representation of what people wanted, and the polls were simply not recent enough to capture people's sentiments on election day. We do indeed need to rule out this possibility for the argument to work, so B is a necessary assumption.

SonalSinha803 · Answer

B is the clear winner. Rest of the options are out of scope.

As far as A is concerned,

A The candidate leading in pre-election polls ((won a majority of the popular vote in the actual election)) ((yet still failed to be elected)). .....does it really sound like an assumption or make any sense. NO. It is more like the Karnataka elections   the premise just talks about pre polls and real day elections.

Sent from my Lenovo K53a48 using  GMAT Club Forum mobile app

Bunuel · Answer

VERITAS PREP OFFICIAL SOLUTION:

Correct Answer: B

This assumption question contains a fairly significant gap in logic, in that it supposes that candidates leading in the pre-election polls must necessarily win in the election. Since pre-election polls and the actual vote are different, the correct answer must somehow link these two ideas, as does answer choice (B). If (B) were not true, using the Assumption Negation Technique, the voting population would then have significantly changed its mind between the poll and the election, and there would be no flaw in the electoral system; consequently, the conclusion would fail. Answer choice (A) brings in an element that is unnecessarily specific. Answer choices (C) and (D) invoke some real-world election concerns. Here the test maker is hoping that you rely on your own knowledge or feelings regarding elections rather than the actual assumptions in the passage. Answer choice (E) is out of scope since nothing in the passage involves media coverage.

DharLog · Answer

Concerned Citizen: The American electoral system clearly possesses deep flaws and must be discarded in favor of a more fair and just system. In several recent elections, candidates who were leading in pre-election polls failed to win election to office.

The suggestion that the American electoral system must be discarded most strongly depends on which of the following assumptions?
------

A. The candidate leading in pre-election polls won a majority of the popular vote in the actual election yet still failed to be elected. 
 It is repharsed fact from the passage - has nothing to do with assumptions.

B. The voting population did not significantly alter its feelings on which candidate was preferred during the time interval between the pre-election polls and the actual election. 
 Fits. The logic of concerned citizen is that electoral system is flawed because in some cases pre-election leader has lost the final election. This citizen clearly supposes that there was nothing to change the mind of citizens in a period between pre-election and election

C. The candidate winning the election consistently spent more money than the candidate who was leading in pre-election polls but failed to actually win. 
 Money spent is irrelevant

D. The candidate who actually won office typically relied on a strongly negative campaign strategy and attacked his or her opponent's personal credibility in the final days before the election. 
 The details of the campaign is irrelevant

E. The elections in question were for major national or state offices and received considerable media coverage.
 Media coverage is irrelevant

manishcmu · Answer

Choice A does not  have to be true  . The answer choice talks about a single candidate about whom we have no idea and the argument certainly does not depend on this single candidate. The argument talks about several other candidates (unlike this candidate) who failed to secure votes in final election.

VerbalBot · Answer

Hello from the GMAT Club VerbalBot!

Thanks to another GMAT Club member, I have just discovered this valuable topic, yet it had no discussion for over a year. I am now bumping it up - doing my job. I think you may find it valuable (esp those replies with Kudos).

Want to see all other topics I dig out? Follow me (click follow button on profile). You will receive a summary of all topics I bump in your profile area as well as via email.

Concerned Citizen: The American electoral system clearly possesses dee

Prep Toolkit

Top 5 GMAT Debrief Videos

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards

GMAT Critical Reasoning (CR) Questions

Concerned Citizen: The American electoral system clearly possesses dee

Prep Toolkit

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards